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Leader (1850-1860), 7th May 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 586, LITERATUKE, SCIENCE, ART, Sic.

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    • LITERATUKE, SCIENCE, ART, Sic.
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      Untitled Article

      . ^ jttlli ! staple literature of the week may be termed - ™ - telegrantmatie , or telegraphic . Everything but "the flimsy emanations 'V-froin Mr . Reuter ' s office " 3 ias fallen into abatement and low price . Mr . "lieuter , -who is a German gentleman , is , for the * tisie being , the fonset origo of all the news stirring . JLuckily for his reputation , the announcement of the much-doubted alliance between France and Sussia , and which caused so much ruin on our . tendon Exchange , was none of his . It was a special one , received by the Times ; but with this - * acceptidn he has been recently the purveyor-gene * - iai of continental news . to high and low , cheap and dear , journals alike . The Renter office was organised—we may as well tell our readers , as people ^ fcr *> aslciricr -wlio this Mr . Reuter is— -now some

      years since , for the diffusion of knowledge about ^ brei gn price currents aiid exchanges among a ceriain number of commercial subscribers . Mr . JReuter appointed suitable agents on every mart , "who supplied him regularly with despatches , -frhercof . he retailed extracts or copies , as the case might be , at his telegraphic circulating library . Se was ( and is ) , in fact , an importer and retailer of news , presently the public press , finding the costs of private telegrams too intolerable , became customers for other than Exchange news , and a

      •?' political" was added to the old " commercial -liepartinent . Whether the brokers , bankers , mer-¦ aisbants , or other agents , who were great authorities about' the prices of gold , rrietalliques , and rentes , 4 ore the agency employed for the new work , or ¦ tfrhether , if employed , they are to be trusted ,-we % ave { ill yet to learn .. However , as Mr . Reuter distributes his copy without favour or affection , it appears that , during the forthcoming struggle , the Jteforning Star and the Daily Telegraph will enjoy -fine information collected by bis staff in common avith the Times , the Daily News , the Morning BBE erald , the Morning Chronicle , and the Morning

      timately acquainted with the leading litterati of his daj ' . A " Life of Manin" has appeared in Paris , written by Henri Martin . It gives , of course , the account of the eighteen months of revolution in Venice , and is likely to create some sensation . Alexander Von Humboldt , it is feared , is on the point of death . He was on Monday seized with a severe attack of catarrh and fever , and , it was thought , would scarcely survive many hours . " { Idylls of the King , " Mr . Tenison ' s new poem , is printing , and will shortly be published by Moxon . The Earl of Ellesmere , President of the Genealogical and Historical Society , has invited the society to hold its ensuing Annual General Meeting at Bridgewater House . their

      Some valuable works have made appearance in Paris during the last few days . In "La Liberte " M . Jules Simon completes his large and eclectic system of philosophy already partly developed in the " Devoir , " " Religion Naturelle , " and " Libertc- de Conscience . " In philosophy and metaphysics also , we must notice M . Mabru , "Del ' erreur au point de vue philosophique , politique et religieux . "— " Essai sur les premiers prineipes des societies , " by Garreau ; and by Lamarche , one of the writers of the Debats , "La Politique et les Religions . "

      Among many in general literature are new books " Trerite et quarante , " by About , the author of " Tolla , " ' ¦ " Germaine Marriages de Paris / ' &c , &c . "La guerre de l'independance Italienne en 1848 et 1849 , "by the General Alloa ; by Enault , " Nadejee ;" by George Sand , " Narcis . se ; " by Madame Piguer , ¦ " ¦ Mos de Lavene ; " by Jourdain , author of "La pliir losophie de St . Thomas d'Aquin . "— " Le Budjet des cultes en France depuis le concordat jusqu ' a nps jours ; " and by Jullien , " Les Paradoxes Litteraires de Lamotte . " - . M . About ' s work on " La question Romaine , " for which a grooving interest has been long felt , has appeared in Brussels . The proof-sheets have already reached this country .

      jAdve rtiser . "V 5 £ hat a change from the days of newspaper steam yachts and special trains ! There is ,-in fact , no prospect that English journalism will be adequately represented on the plains of Lombardy 4 > r Savoy . The captain of the pen who ventures forth must look out sharply , not for ribbands and crosses , but for drumhead and a . short shrift at the affectionate hands of Austrian and French generals ; and what courtesy our liberal friend of Sardinia ¦ would extend to a vagrom , newspaper man may _ be gathered from the following Turin proclamation , vrhich . has a schedule of penalties annexed to it for the . guidance of his own faithful subjects . " 1 . Henceforth and during the war the publication ( except by the Government ) , whether * by the aid of the printing presis or other mechanical or artificial means of reproducing thought , of any news or reports in any way bearing upon the armies or the progress of the war , and uoit officially communicated , is forbidden . *• 2 . It is forbidden to hawk printed matter of any description in the streets or in any public place , or % o post any kind of placard without special authority . "

      Our readers will therefore observe— -the usual sources of newspaper information being , quoad the Twar , dammed up— -how such persons as the Herr JGteuter become powers : how it becomes those who ¦ circulate their notes to make sure of their good faith ; and how much tho publio in general are interested hi watching their operations very nar-Jrtrwly . Tlio late Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmirl , though principally known as a capitalist and a " pillar of the ommercial world ondored small service to

      c , ' * " r no literature in his time . He assisted in the foundation of Mechanics' Institutions , tho formation of tho Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge , and , In fact , in every attempt made within the last halfcentury for the social and intellectual advancement *> f the masses . The establishment of University -College was also mainly owing to tho exertions of t * Mo worthy man ; and his services are handsomely aulcnowledgod in the last annual report of the council , He was a Fellow of the Royal , the Geological , .. and many other scientific societies , and was in-

      Untitled Article

      GEOFFRY HAMLYJST . The Recollections of Gcoffry ffamlyn . By Henry Kingsley . In 3 vols . Cambridge : Macmillan and Co . This work presents to our mind" a variety of reflections ; and awakens in us a great degree of sympathy , but it can scarcely be said to accomplish the end which ' . a novelist generally sets up for himself . Indeed , af ter the hrst volume it ceases to

      be a romance . It lapses into a book of travels . Had the work been modified and given to the public as the travels of Henry Kingsley , from Devonshire to Australia , it would have been a good addition to our knowledge of Australian life , but as it is ,, it is neither a fine work of fiction nor an interesting book of travels . Striving for incident and dramatic effect in the former case has distorted the facts that would have been valuable in

      his door , wayworn and travel-stained , gives tie author the opportunity of presenting us with one of the best pieces of dramatic writing we have read for some time . The vicar survives only long enough to recognise his daughter , and here the story , may be said to end ; for when we enter upon the second volume we find that Mr , Kino-sley has a purpose to exhibit his experience as a travelled and we have , accordingly , page af ter page of the " author ' s own Australian adventures , and exhibitions of his knowledge of the manners and customs of the inhabitants of the bush . Mr . Kingsley

      possesses the true materials for the novelist ; he has plenty of good stuff in him , as is shown in the ability with which some of the characters are drawn but in the present work he has suffered his imagination to lead him into strange vagaries . The tale is wild and eccentric , and so disjointed , that we are unable to give the little story there is after the first volume . But even where , the narrative is told without breaks , it chills the blood , and raises in the reader a morbid excitement , to leave him at length in a state of bewilderment .

      The rapid succession of events ( in the third volume ) , the lofty flights of imaginatio ? i , and the varied tones and colours and style indicate clearly the presence of a man who can and will eventually write better things . We trust the author will receive pur remarks , as intended , in kindness . To persevere in producing such a heterogenous work as the present will be inevitable failure ; but to modify his vigour and to labour for a purer style will lead this young unpractised writer to great success .

      the latter . The first scene of the tale is laid in Devonshire , where there are four young men paying court to the vicar ' s daughter , Mary—a " poor , pretty fool , " who cares for no one but herself , and would rather break her father ' s heart than sacrifice her own feelings . As is often the caso , she chooses from among her admirers tho one who is * the least reputable , Hbccause ho has a handsome face and black curly hair . In this young couple considerable interest is excited . We feel burselves carried forward and wrapped up in the narrative of their feelings and actions . The father of George Hawker , the favored suitor , is living in 6 in with an old gipsy

      woman , and George is her child , although the old man thinks that he is tho soil of his wife , dead some years before the tale commences . When Mary ' s father hears that George is a bastard ho forbids him to see his daughter , or to come to the house ; and then follows , as might be supposed , a series of seorefc , meetings , which ends in the " pretty fool , Mary , " eloping with her lover . To provide funds for this purpose , George forges his father ' s name for three or four hundred pounds , and at the end of the first volume we find him transported . for forgery and coining , and his wife on her way from London to Devonshire , with her firstborn tied on her back-in true tramp fashion . The meeting with her father when she is found at

      Untitled Article

      SERIALS . Br-AcmvooD is this month not quito so attrnctiyom its light papers ; but in its political urticlcs Ay lijchare marked by a certain air of moderation , it is in Wj force . There is a capital rciloctive article , eiititlca " Only a Pond . " The belief in witchcraft lorms t e subject of another article , under tho title ot Ifto Witch of Walkerho . " The leading article deals with " Popular Litoraturo " in general , ami apeciflcally of " Tracts . " The remaining , articles arci continuations-Part V . of "A Cruise in JWJf Waters , " and Part III . of " Tho Luck ot Lady *

      F « ASER .-Mr . Buckle leads off the number with an article on " Mill on Liberty , " in which ho is > crv severe on men of gonius who aro not also jno « ofbusi ness . Mr . Chorloy ' s " Notes on tho National "ion * <> t Spain" is in a more genial spirit . " Ilohnby House is continued ; so likewise is "S word and Gown . Tho other articles aro of averago literary moiic . EoLBOTio-Commeneos with a ~« « ° ^ J ? M Mr . Gladstone and his Homer ; a moro " » > f // g ™ one follows , on Sir W . Hamilton . A pope on a « giarisms and Literary CoinoWoncos » hat some literary interest , but many ot tho ln » ta "gj vi £ familiar . There is a lohg article also on » Italy j m the Italians -, " and many shorter papers of avor » gc m TAix ' 8 indulges tliis month in its opinions on ttg war , and has some clever articles , DotR ^/ JJ ^ , prose , including the usual iw > p ° rtio » oJ * JJJ " . « Scooesirom the Drama of Life " « vro cpntinuca .

      Untitled Article

      7 . ]^ S , IHE LEADP . ENp . 476 , May 7 , 165 Q >

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      LITERARY NOTES , ETC . its .

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      HOLYWOOP HALL . Holy wood Hall ; a Tale of 1715 . A Novel . By James Grant . Koiitledge and Co . The rebellion of 1715 is the theme of " Holywood Hall . " We have history served up in anew dress , with old characters and new-properties . There is abundance of bustle and incident , with a sub-plot of mystery which carries the reader on to the end with feelings of unabated interest .. The Scottish element is somewhat too favourably delineated , but this is a fault common to Scotch writers , who may be pardoned for evincing clannish feelings , which is a national characteristic . But we must protest against that slashing and superficial style of reproducing what we are told to regard as " history , " a practice but too . common among writers of fiction . And we recommend Mr . Grant , who is deservedly a favourite with the British public , not to mar his well deserved fame by permitting exaggerations to appear in his productions , which merit , and will obtain , something beyond an ephemeral reputation .

      Literatuke, Science, Art, Sic.

      LITERATUKE , SCIENCE , ART , Sic .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 7, 1859, page 586, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2293/page/10/